Our Environmental Priorities

As a responsible corporate citizen, MetLife is embedding sustainability throughout our operations, maintenance, and procurement processes.

Working in partnership with our employees, customers and business partners, MetLife can influence meaningful change in minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing energy consumption, eliminating waste, implementing more sustainable ways of working and living, and engaging in responsible sourcing.

Ambitious New Goals for Environmental Stewardship

MetLife is committed to sound environmental stewardship and in 2015, we announced bold new environmental goals for our international operations, including:

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Become carbon neutral in 2016 and going forward.CollapsedExpanded

This goal applies to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all of MetLife’s owned and leased properties across the world, as well as its fleet of automobiles in the Auto & Home business line (Scope 1 and 2). The goal also applies to the company’s employee business travel (Scope 3). MetLife will achieve carbon neutrality through continues implementation of energy efficiency measures across its portfolio, increased use of collaboration tools to reduce employee business travel and investment in carbon offsets for the remainder of its GHG emissions.

By 2020, reduce all energy consumption by 10 percent from a 2012 baseline.CollapsedExpanded

This applies to the company’s global office portfolio, including company-owned and leased facilities. These reductions are being achieved through a combination of capital improvement projects and facility upgrades across offices around the world, such as lighting retrofits, chiller and boiler replacements, efficient HVAC systems, demand metering, occupancy-sensor installations and other projects.

This 10 percent reduction applies to MetLife’s global owned and leased offices, the Auto & Home business automobile fleet, and business travel. These reductions are being achieved through various emissions reduction strategies, including energy efficiency capital projects, the integration of sustainability best practices into new MetLife workspaces, and the increased use of collaboration tools to offset employee travel. These reductions will not be achieved through the purchase of green energy or carbon offsets.

By 2020, require 100 of MetLife’s top suppliers to publicly disclose their GHG emissions and emission-reduction activities.CollapsedExpanded

As a financial services company, MetLife’s supply chain represents a significant portion of its environmental impact, so it is important to engage key suppliers and encourage reduction of their own GHG emissions.

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Energy & EmissionsCollapsedExpanded

MetLife is an office-based organization with a large real estate portfolio. Among our priorities in managing our environmental impact is developing programs that address climate change, lower energy consumption and improve the environmental performance of facilities that are owned or operated by MetLife. Since 2012, MetLife has reduced energy consumption by 30% as a result of numerous capital improvement projects and facility upgrades, including lighting retrofits, chiller and boiler replacements, LED lighting systems, demand metering and occupancy-sensor installations.

MetLife’s travel policies and work arrangements maximize our connection to each other and to customers while reducing the company’s environmental impact. For example, MetLife employees can access innovative tools for collaboration at MetLife’s global offices from more than 400 video conferencing rooms. Collaboration technologies reduce the need for business travel and can significantly lower overall travel-related emissions.

Investing in Renewable EnergyCollapsedExpanded

MetLife is committed to using renewable sources of electricity as an important part of our strategy to cut emissions. We purchase significant amounts of grid-sourced, low-carbon energy. We also purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to support the development of new renewable generation capacity.

Green FacilitiesCollapsedExpanded

One hundred percent of the offices we manage in the United States are ENERGY STAR-certified. Globally, 18 of our buildings – representing more than three million square feet of space, or 20 percent of our global office space – are certified by the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program (LEED). Six of these offices have achieved LEED Platinum certification – the highest level of distinction awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Not only are we working to make our own workspaces as sustainable as possible, MetLife has also made significant investments in sustainability and green building practices in our real estate investment portfolio, including numerous new development projects and equity stakes in 55 LEED-certified properties.

Waste ManagementCollapsedExpanded

MetLife carefully considers its use of natural resources, including materials and water. MetLife is continuously striving to divert waste from landfills through a combination of waste reduction, recycling and reuse initiatives. We seek out innovative ways to reuse and recycle paper, plastic, cardboard, electronics equipment, toner cartridges, and other office suppliers. In 2017, we recycled more than 3,675,223 pounds of waste, representing more than 57 percent of the total waste produced from our U.S. managed facilities.

We also aim to eliminate waste at the source. One way we have accomplished this is by changing the company’s use of paper. MetLife’s “e-delivery” practices have greatly reduced the number of statements and reports we print, as customers now receive this information electronically. By reducing our paper use, we can enhance customer convenience, save money, and help the environment, too.

Water ConservationCollapsedExpanded

Water conservation is also an important priority. MetLife invests in water-efficient technologies and implements water-reduction strategies to minimize water consumption. Due to these efforts, which include efficient fixture installation, green irrigation practices and facility management improvement, in 2017, MetLife reduced our water consumption by almost 38% since 2010.

Responsible SourcingCollapsedExpanded

MetLife seeks to do business with organizations that uphold sound environmental practices. We embrace sustainability through supplier sourcing and management and green purchasing programs. Some of MetLife’s major green purchasing efforts include sustainable building materials, environmentally friendly janitorial suppliers, sustainably-sourced paper and Energy Star-certified IT equipment.